Woman survives three days stranded in forest after giving birth
A Californian woman survived three days alone with her newborn baby in national woodland after giving birth at the side of the road when she ran out of fuel.
Amber Pangborn, 35, began having contractions and decided to take an unfamiliar short cut to her parents' home to get help when she ran out of petrol on a desolate back road.
Stranded on the side of the road in the Plumas National Forest with no mobile phone service, she went into labour.
"I laid out a sleeping bag in the back seat, lied down, gripped the handle above the back window and gave birth to my daughter," she told KCRA.
She gave birth to daughter, Marissa, alone on Thursday, but the pair was not discovered for another three days.
Ms Pangborn said she survived on soda water, three apples and a bottle of water she had in the car.
The new mother said she found herself fighting off mosquitoes and bees attracted to the placenta.
Ms Pangborn and her baby daughter were eventually rescued after she started a signal fire to alert emergency authorities.
However, she feared she had started a forest fire.
"The fire just went whoosh, and the whole side of the mountain just caught on fire," she said.
Thankfully, Ms Pangborn's plan worked.
When she spotted a Department of Forestry helicopter and realised help was on the way, an overwhelmed Ms Pangborn shed tears of relief.
"I was just crying, I thought we were going to doe," she said.
"I was glad that someone had seen us and we were going to be okay."
They were taken to a local hospital for further evaluation.
